An elderly person receives close to seven federal dollars for every dollar received by a child.

State and local spending on public schools dwarfs all other forms of spending on children, averaging $7,154 per child, out of a total public investment of $11,822 per child in 2008.

In total, public spending on the elderly was $26,355 per person, or 2.2 times the amount spent per child in 2008. Health care expenses are a significant portion of public expenditures on the elderly—more than $11,000 per person—but per capita spending on the elderly remains considerably higher than per capita spending on children even when health spending is excluded.